Recent News

On the 25th October 2017, LSE London attended London Build, a construction expo at Olympia. The goal of the expo was to understand what the current challenges are for the construction sector as well as to grasp this sector’s relationship with the current housing policies. The expo was divided into several summits, leaving the audience free to attend a wide range of discussions. We chose the Future London summit with a series… Read More

LSE London attended a Policy Forum for London keynote seminar: Next steps for housing in London and the South East: affordability, meeting demand and the future for social housing, organised by Westminster Forum Projects on the 13 September 2017. Here are some of the arguments that were presented. James Murray (Greater London Authority) presented the Mayor’s draft housing strategy. He explained that London needs to play a bigger role in public sector… Read More

On 18 September 2017, LSE London’s Christine Whitehead and Ian Gordon presented at an event entitled Rethinking an Old Problem: Innovation in Housing Supply and Demand, hosted by East of England, Local Government Organisation (EELGA). The event centred around concerns over the gap between housing supply and demand, which has been exacerbated by a reduction in house building over the past 40 years. This has had far reaching consequences on affordability of… Read More

On 14 November 2017, LSE London launched a report entitled, A taxing question: is Stamp Duty Land Tax suffocating the English housing market? The document was commissioned by Family Building Society and authored by Kath Scanlon, Christine Whitehead, and Fanny Blanc. The report looked at how Stamp Duty Land Tax (SLDT) has changed over the years and its impact on household behaviour, on the housing market, and the overall national economy. While… Read More

What will a typical English housing association look like in 10 years’ time? Will the plethora of small and medium-sized associations coalesce into a handful of mega-organisations? Will associations build more homes for private sale than for social rent? LSE London looked at these issues in The Future Social Housing Provider, a report for Flagship Housing Association. The publication, co-authored by Kath Scanlon, Christine Whitehead and Fanny Blanc, was launched on 13… Read More

On Saturday 28 October, Kath Scanlon participated in a panel debate titled Housing: Reform or Revolution? The debate was hosted by the Institute of Ideas, in association with Dezeen in a festival which featured a series of events titled Battle of Ideas. As the title of the event indicates, the debate centred around big ideas, or solutions for what is called the housing crisis. Important questions this panel addressed were about the… Read More

Site visit: BPS One recent July day, LSE London researchers visited Battersea Power Station (BPS) on the south bank of the Thames to look at progress on this enormous site, which will eventually have over 4000 new homes. Construction at BPS is proceeding much faster than on a typical for-sale scheme in London. This reflects the approach in Malaysia, home country of the scheme’s backers. Given the capital’s desperate need for new… Read More